In an approach to make the quantum computing accessible to more developers, Microsoft upgraded its Quantum Development Kit with support for macOS and Linux, as well as additional open source libraries and interoperability capability with Python.
Announced at Ignite Conference in September, and released for preview in December last year, Quantum Development Kit has been used by thousands of developers around the world, ranging from students and professors to researchers and algorithm designers.
Quantum computing helps scientists do computations within minutes or hours which can otherwise take a lifetime of the universe on even the most advanced computers.
Microsoft has enhanced the performance of its quantum simulator by 4 to 5 times, enabling developers to run and test code faster than before. It will specifically help in simulations that use more than 20 qubits.
The major highlight of the upgrade is the support for building quantum applications on macOS and Linux, which was earlier available for Windows only. The Quantum Development Kit is completely integrated with Visual Studio.
Quantum Development Kit now includes interoperability with Python. A large number of developers had their existing libraries of code in Python language, and to use the Microsoft’s development kit, they had to port the libraries to it. With the interoperability functionality, developers no longer need to port anything.
The remaining upgrades in the new release are designed to accommodate the preferences of developers. There are libraries and tutorials for developers to familiarize them with quantum computing. The developers without any quantum expertise can write sequences of programming computing using them.
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“These updates will bring the power of quantum computing to even more developers on more platforms. At Microsoft, we believe quantum computing holds the promise of solving many of today’s unsolvable problems and we want to make it possible for the broadest set of developers to code new quantum applications,” wrote Jeff Henshaw, Group Program Manager, Quantum Software in a blog post.
